St. Paul daily globe., 1887-07-04
THE HUDSON BAY COUNTRY.
Interesting Information About a
Comparatively Unknown Land.

THE HUDSON BAY COUNTRY.
Interesting Information About
Comparatively Unknown Land.
Letter In Pittsburg Post
Those who have never seen life as it
exists among the inhabitants of the
Hudson bay country would be aston
ished at the extent of civilization among
class of people generally supposed to
be. savages, as well as at the awful
grandeur of the scenery and forbidding
aspect of the graveyard coasts along
the shores of that northern sea. In all
the uninhabitable region of North
America there is nowhere to be found a
more bleak, deSOlate or dreary waste
than that between Ungava bay, off the
coast of Labrador on the east and Fort
Churchill ON the west and south
ern part of Hudson bay proper.
Although little is known yet re-
garding this weird and frozen
region, it has had growth within the
last half century which has been some
thing phenomenal, and having been
measured according to its needs by the
God of Nature, has gone on advancing
from age to age, until at the present
time, not alone the more fertile islands,
but the extent of land back from the
coast on either side is thickly populated
by people who hunt, and fish, and
breed, and talk, and chatter even among
the misery and destitutiOn which life in
a region of perpetual frost and snow
must bring. Hudson Bay itself is really
an inland sea, extending between lati-
tude 51o and 64o north, and longitude
ITO and 95o west, and while about ], 1,OOO
miles long at its greatest distance, is
only about 600 miles in breadth, cover
ing an area of over 100000 square miles.
1t is navigable only for about
three months in the year-from the
middle of June to the mild of Septem-
ber-and for the remainder of the year
is filed with drift ice, which renders
navigation, even~fOr short distance,
an absolute impossibility. The Eastern
coasts of the bay are to be admired,
cliffs rising in may cases at height of
from 200 to 400 feet abruptly from the
glacier-like substances, which, being
ever coated with ice and frozen snow,
SHINE in the sunlight until it is almost
impossible to look at them for any
length of time. The residents of this
section are not properly EsquimauX, but
a cross between this race and the
French and Indians, who have come in
for the purpose of hunting and fishing,
and finally settled down among the ma
tives to live as they do and share with
them in the privatiOnS which no othe
life affords. On an average, in the
summer months, the thermometer
stands at about 45o above, while the
temperature in the winter runs as low
as GOO below zero, and will average 25o
below. Fish are scarce, and can be
in, n nj of which on,
the east there is only the Great Whale,
while on the west there are the Hayes,
Nelson, Churchill, Moore, Albany,
Weeknisk, Main and Abbitibbe. Seal
abound in plenty, but are extremely shy
and hard for the natives to get at, while
pOrpOiSe and walruS are equally difficult
to get hold of. Were it not for the small
fur-bearing animals which are about the
shores the poor half-breeds would stand
very good chance of periShing by hum
ger, as they can expect nothing in the
way of fayors from the Hudson Bay
cOmpany'S stores. a few of which are
along the coast. The natives live in lit
tie villages composed of from fifty to 100
rude hutS. Each community has its place
of worship and its church burial
ground, which is conSecrated by the
MOravian missionaries, few of whom
are to be found wandering about from
village to village, from the eastern eX-
tent of the settlements down as far as
Fort Churchill on the west. These
faithful, beloved men expect no recon-
penSe for their services, and if they did
they wouldn't get it, for there is not in
all the country such thing as money,
the only exchange being in fish, oil
or furS. Whenever one of a tribe dies
the rest of his family-meaning by that
the entire Settlement-StOp work for the
day and prepare to bury him. If the
settlement possesses such thing as a
dinner bell, and the most of them do,
the Oldest man in the village goes about
from hut to hut and rings. the bell in
front of each until the occupants come
out, both big and little, and, falling into
line, march after him. When the cir
cult has been made, and big and little
are all collected, a march is made for the
kirote, as it is called, the village church,
which consists of about an acre of
ground simply inclOsed by wall of
stones near the middle of the commu-
nifty. Into this little field go the entire
populace, and, after chanting the vir-
tues of the dead for some hours, the
corpse is taken away on skin rack and
covered with ice and snow in the COM
mon burial plat. The rest of the day is
spent in rejoicing, and the next day, if
the deceased was married, his better
half makes another choice, and at the
end of week, if an agreement be come
to, the dead is forgotten, and the no
longer sOrrOwing ones begin life over